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Solo Pete as Who, Duran Duran for a moment, Mark the Marxist, and more stuff




> Well, I guess thematically it wouldn't have been such a stretch to make
WC
> a Who album, since they're all from London and share a common background.

Bill:

Pete DID say that it was the sequel to QUAD.

> Musically though, it almost seems like Pete was making a conscious effort
> to avoid a Who sound and do something different.

I don't know about that. Give Blood and Brilliant Blues SCREAM Who to me.
It is my own personal belief that BB is about the breakup...it certainly
articulates the sentiments expressed by Pete in interviews regarding this
subject. "It's time to live..." Pete felt the band was strangling him,
right? "Don't want to be frozen..." THAT is almost exactly what he said
about becoming an oldies band. "I know that now is the time to say/It's
time..." Time to break up? He said he wanted to go out while they were
still on top. "The brilliant blues/Have faded into sadness and pain/And now
it's the time to say/It's time..." If we accept that "the brilliant (means
"really good" in the UK) blues" is the band...and the band apparently made
him "blue" as much as anything else in his life...then it makes sense, does
it not?
When it comes down to it, I also believe After The Fire is about the
breakup. Listen to the lyrics and see what you think, and we can discuss
that too if anyone is interested.
Second Hand Love, Crashing By Design, Come To Mama and White City Fighting
all would have easily been Who songs, too IMHO. The others could have been
Pete Who songs...consider the difference between his demos and the Who
versions. Consider it this way: The parts like "Say goodbye to the
brilliant blues/Say goodbye..." would still be done by Pete, while Rog
would do this part: "It's time to preach..." Can't you hear it? Imagine
Daltrey singing "But you may find that blood is not enough..." Yes?

> Unlike with Chinese Eyes and Empty
> Glass, there seems to be a lot of disagreement about WC, doesn't there?

Maybe among critics. EG is so blantantly commercial that I can't imagine a
Who fan who thinks it superior to the more intellectual WC, or ATBCHCE for
that matter.

> Psycho would make sense as a Who album.  As for Iron Man, to me it's the
> oddest Pete album.  I think of it as the begininning of his progression
> towards Broadway.  "Dig" is decent enough, but I can't stand "Fire."

I can't see that one as a Who album. Nor any of his other solo albums, but
definitely songs here and there...like Stardom In Acton.

> Did Duran Duran use a lot of synths?  I can't remember.  Oh god, now
> you've got me singing their songs in my head!

Sorry! Yes, they were a synth-driven band. I actually like several of their
songs, strange as that might seem. At least they set the standard for Rock
music during their 14:59 minutes of fame.

> overboard.  It was around this time that he predicted the demise of
> guitars in rock music, to be replaced by synths.  Of course, he also
> predicted the ultimate triumph of Communism.

I hope he's wrong about the first, but I agree with him on the second. Not
that I'm a communist or anything (used to be a Marxist but that's another
story), but to me it's inevitable that we either share what there is or we
kill off a large portion of the population (or they'll kill us for our
stuff). I don't like it, but it seems to me "there ain't no way out.... "

> They didn't quite replace guitars, but some techno groups have managed to
do 
> without.  PT did predict a new musical genre.

Keets:

And he did it in 1973, on QUAD, with The Dirty Jobs. Any guitar on that
one?

> How do you suppose JAE would sound unplugged?  Think he would play an 
> acoustic bass?

Acoustic guitars don't mean you have to have acoustic bass. I personally
wanted the boys to go out acoustic (or "unplugged" if you prefer) for the
QUAD shows. Just the three of them with no drums. And, IMHO, the acoustic
stuff during the encore was better than the QUAD material (as good as it
was). WGFA is every bit as powerful acoustic, for instance, and I'll never
forget the impressive job Roger did (Raleigh NC) with The Kids Are Alright,
both vocally and playing (by himself) on acoustic guitar.

> And in the May 7th edition of Entertainment Weekly, the title to a story
> about the Littleton tragedy..."THE KIDS AREN'T ALL RIGHT."

Carol:

Should have been: "The parents were clueless, the school was slack as Hell,
and the police were stupid."

> even beating out Black in Black

Dave:

Well, THAT would be easy enough...Midnight Oil, for instance...

> the voice over compared his stage presence to a "young Pete Townshend". 

I saw that too. "Senator, you're no Peter Townshend."


More stupid lyrics for the masses, this one `specially for Bill:

"The union of the snake is on the climb..."
                                   Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran